Jean Dujardin Eyed for George Clooney’s MONUMENTS MEN; Cate Blanchett and Paul Giamatti May Also Star

As George Clooney ramps up pre-production on his next directorial effort, the WWII drama The Monuments Men, he’s starting to focus on casting the film. Based on the book of the same name by Robert M. Edsel, the story centers on a group of art experts selected by the US Government to chase down the stolen art of Europe during World War II. Clooney is producing, writing, directing, and starring in the film, and The Artist star (and Best Actor winner) Jean Dujardin is now being eyed for a supporting role in the pic. Hit the jump for more.

The Wrap reports that Dujardin is being looked at for an unspecified role in the pic, while Cate Blanchett and Paul Giamatti are also being sought after for supporting roles. Blanchett would play Rose Valland, an art historian and member of the French Resistance, while Giamatti would play the co-founder of the New York City ballet, Lincoln Kirstein. That would make for one hell of a cast, and I’m eager to see who else Clooney nabs to fill out the ensemble. Talks are still in the very early stages, but production is set to get underway in Germany, Austria, and Paris next spring.

Read the synopsis for The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History below:

At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: “degenerate” works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world’s great art from the Nazis. [Amazon]